San Francisco boasts its Golden Gate Bridge.

Venice, Fla., lives off the Gulf of Mexico.

Prescott, Ariz., is sheltered by 1.25 million acres of national forest.

And Lawrence? Listen up and play ball.

“Music and basketballs fill the air in ‘Jayhawk Country,'” U.S. News & World Report says in its online assessment of communities rated as retirement locales.

And they’re good things.

Lawrence is among the 10 “Best Places to Retire,” a list of communities profiled in the magazine’s Oct. 1 issue as topping a nationwide database of more than 1,000 potential retirement destinations.

The publicity is no small matter. U.S. News carries a paid circulation of 2 million, and its Web site attracted 1 million unique visitors last month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings Inc.

Such recognition is nothing new, said Tina Roberts, development manager for Douglas County Senior Services. People increasingly are discovering Lawrence as a place to spend their golden years and, as national publications catch on, people outside Kansas University alumni are joining in.

Now it’s up to the community to address needs with continuing education, public transit, affordable housing and other issues before incoming retirees start to tax the system.

“We get calls from all over the country,” Roberts said. “We don’t need to market Lawrence. It’s already marketed. Now we just have to plan for it.”

In the profile, U.S. News lauds Lawrence for having lush, green surroundings, plus a variety of features – including Lied Center performances, an active community arts center and theater, a vibrant downtown, a longtime farmers market and “a perennial power in men’s basketball,” KU – that can appeal to retirees.

But the profile also notes that weather can offer the potential for discouragement: “This is the Midwest of four distinct seasons,” the magazine reports.

Lawrence is among 11 Kansas communities included in the magazine’s nationwide ratings of best places to retire. Others on the list from Kansas: Derby, Great Bend, Hays, Lenexa, Manhattan, Newton, Olathe, Overland Park, Prairie Village and Shawnee.